Sri Lanka attracts tourism investment proposals worth over 1 bln USD: minister-Xinhua

Sri Lanka attracts tourism investment proposals worth over 1 bln USD: minister

Source: Xinhua| 2022-01-27 12:46:45|Editor: huaxia

COLOMBO, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka received applications for investments in tourism amounting to over 1 billion U.S. dollars in the last two years despite challenges from COVID-19, Minister of Tourism Prasanna Ranatunga has said.

The government has received 99 proposals for investment in tourism over the last two years, and 59 projects valued at around 300 million U.S. dollars in total have been approved, said Ranatunga, quoted by the state-owned Daily News on Thursday.

The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), which is the apex regulatory body of the tourism sector, signed memorandums of understanding with eight government institutions on Wednesday in order to speed up the investment approval process.

According to Ranatunga, the tourism industry is considered high on the agenda to usher economic recovery and growth in the post-COVID-19 era optimism.

The tourism industry is one of Sri Lanka's biggest foreign currency earners, bringing in 3.6 billion U.S. dollars and accounting for 4.3 percent of gross domestic products (GDP) in 2019.

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